1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns an arrangement for gaining fish meat in pulp form, the arrangement comprising a fish filleting machine, a straining machine or separating device arranged downstream of said filleting machine in operative association therewith and including a perforated drum and a pressing belt partially wrapped around the drum to press against the surface of the drum and form a pull-in zone with said drum, and a transfer apparatus disposed between said filleting machine and said separating device.
2. Prior Art
A device of this kind is known from DE Patent Publication 27 08 203. In this document a fish filleting machine is disclosed in which a separating device and a transfer surface are directly connected to each other. This surface extends to the periphery of the perforated drum and is provided for transferring the fillets from one machine to the other. In this device, the pressing belt is arranged such that the pull-in zone of the separating device is located in the region of the highest point of the perforated drum.
A disadvantage of this device is that while the fillets are crossing the transfer surface a pushing force is applied on them from behind. Because of the soft consistency of the fillets and their tendency to adhere to the surface, this will lead to the fillets becoming compressed and bunched and in extreme cases folded over onto one another so that some of the fillets will land in the pull-in zone of the separating device with the skin-side towards the perforated surface. As a result of this problem the yield will be reduced and the fish pulp may also contain particles of skin which severely impair its quality. Attempts have been made to overcome this problem by operating the separating device at a considerably higher working speed than the filleting machine. However, apart from the fact that present-day filleting machines operate at a speed which is close to the maximum reliable operating speed of straining machines, no improvement in the performance resulted.
A further disadvantage of the known device is that the separating device cannot be operated separately from the filleting machine because of the disposition of the pull-in zone which would necessitate a feed process which relies on gravity.
A combination of a filleting machine and separating device is further more known from JP 3-23138 B2. This device is provided with a transfer conveyor arranged between the output of the filleting machine and the input of the separating device. However, this conveyor is solely intended to serve an inspection and correction area, for instance to allow the position of the fillets to be corrected manually. Furthermore, the fillets are actually fed to the separating device by means of a transfer surface, which results in the disadvantages already described.
3. Objects of the Invention
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which is capable of producing fish meat pulp of a high and reliable quality from unfilleted fish.
It is a further important object of the present invention to provide a transfer apparatus suitable for automatically transferring fish fillets from a fish filleting machine to a straining apparatus which reliably ensures the correct positioning of the fillets entering the straining apparatus.